Samie Kim Falvey, a key figure in ABC’s comedy success, is joining AwesomenessTV as chief content officer of an unnamed premium content venture. It will be a standalone brand wholly owned by AwesomenessTV and will feature short-form mobile content.
DreamWorks Animation, Hearst and Verizon jointly own AwesomenessTV, an original programming service for younger consumers.
Falvey joins AwesomenessTV from ABC Entertainment, where she was executive VP of comedy development and international scripted development. ABC has enjoyed a handful of popular comedies during her time there, including black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat. Joining ABC in 2006, she helped launch the Wednesday block that includes Modern Family.
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Falvey also led the re-launch of the Watch ABC app and oversaw development and production of all scripted short-form content for the platform.
“Samie has a tremendous track record of successful collaborations with some of the most accomplished creators in the business and a great knack for developing content that resonates,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation. “Her eye for great storytelling coupled with terrific talent relationships will be invaluable in creating next-generation premium programming for audiences to devour in the ways they are actually watching today—in bite-sized chunks across every device there is.”
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Falvey will oversee all content, including programming, development and production. She and her team will draw upon the entire Hollywood community, said AwesomenessTV, for content creation.
Prior to ABC, Falvey was VP of comedy development at Fox. Her career began at Fox in 1999, as manager of current programming.
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“I've long admired Jeffrey, Brian [Robbins, cocreator] and Brett [Bouttier, chief operating officer]’s commitment to innovation, and I could not be more excited to work with them in building their next business,” she said. “I am eager to bring audiences a new and contemporary form of content and to provide the best creative talent with a wholly original outlet.”
